@cypresspat, thank you for your perceptive comments, and for sharing your son’s success story.
These questions weigh heavy on us, of course, and we are aware of pros and cons. On the one hand, DSs Common App essay talks on a very personal level why he believes one can be “world class” anywhere if they put in the work. On the other hand, he so wants to be challenged at the highest level and surrounded by the kinds of peers you are talking about.
…The only school he applied to that is likely (if NMF is confirmed, which it should be… I hope?) going to be tuition-free for him is our state flagship in the middle of the 2nd hundred USNWR. His research mentor who is a CS professor there made it very clear that he doesn’t believe it is a suitable place for DS to continue his education.
As far as middle ground goes, both him and us would be happy if he at least got into Purdue with merit (that would also mean $30K/yr, but it’s arguably a better CS program).
MIT’s NPC shows us ~50K/yr, some other top schools he’s applying to (Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, UChicago) are also in the same range, but once you get out of top 10 we quickly become full pay. That includes Caltech, though he applied there just because he could apply there early along with MIT:) If he gets into MIT (trying not to get our hopes up too much though), it will be the one to beat, and we are prepared to make the sacrifices.
GT is nice, but offers no merit. Not sure how we feel about paying $50K for it, but he has to be accepted first even there.
Vandy and USC give out about 100 full tuition scholarships. Not sure how realistic those are, but he bought those lottery tickets.
So it could really go either way. He might be admitted to one of the dream schools, or he might be lucky to be offered full tuition at Vandy, or OSU could become his only OOS option at $30K - and even that is not yet a given.
Right now we are focused on harvesting the opportunities, and will make the decision once the spreadsheet is completed.
Thank you again!
